Quotable Country – 07/10/11 Edition

July 10, 2011 by C.M. Wilcox

Click the bullet after each quote to visit the source.

… because he’s motivating teenagers all over the country to memorize the two 30-second rap parts of the song. It’s no easy task. And that has to be good for maintaining good study skills, right? ●– – Alison Bonaguro thinks “Dirt Road Anthem” might have educational benefits.

It was fun. I had a good time doing it. It wasn’t hard; I just brought people on, took people off, cracked a few jokes and went home. It wasn’t that tough. ●– – Vince Gill on 12 years of hosting the CMA Awards.

I don’t think our music could be any more opposite than Rascal Flatts, me and those guys. ●– – Modern outlaw Justin Moore fancies himself the antithesis of polished popsters Rascal Flatts. I’m not sure they’re as opposite as he thinks.

I like to look at people’s hearts when I talk to them. I like to see what they’re all about. Your mouth really speaks what’s coming from your heart all the time. Talking to [Taylor Swift], you just see how caring, sweet and kind of a person she is. ●– – How intense is Danny Gokey? Well, when he talks to you, he sees straight through to your heart.

If you lean over the edge, that’s where creativity lives. I have a NASCAR buddy, and we were drinking a beer one night and just chatting, and he said ‘We run the fastest lap next to the wall.’ That’s the way we looked at it. It was out of control. We could have crashed, but that’s where the magic of music lives. You’ve got to be pretty far out there, and let it be what it’s gonna be and not choke it. ●– – Eric Church and creativity both live out on the edge.

I have a dongle key that connects me to the satellite. It’s pretty creepy. It’s high-tech stuff that’s above my head. I’m like a monkey, as long as I push the buttons in the right order, it seems to work. ●– – Elizabeth Cook strips me of some illusions concerning her old-timey “Apron Strings” radio show, which she can record on her laptop wherever she happens to be on a given day.

If there’s anything that I hope that I have contributed to country music, it’s probably not going to be song of the year, or to sing some amazing note people will talk about forever. I hope that people learn from me, it’s O.K. to be yourself. It’s O.K. to offend somebody, and as a matter of fact, please be polarizing. If you’re not polarizing, you failed in my opinion. If you don’t stand for something, how can anyone respect what you do? ●– – Blake Shelton in a Jon Caramanica-penned New York Times feature.

I don’t write just to relieve my own anxieties, I write for the people who can’t express themselves. I can’t save the world, but I might be able to save someone today if I can put them in a better mood. The music’s designed to be like a ray of sunshine for all those folks in the dark. ●– – Dolly Parton.

It’s one of the only places that I’m in control of what’s going on. ●– – Trace Adkins enjoys his time on stage.

Country music radio is the best place for music in general, in my personal opinion. It’s the only place where I can hear a bunch of different influences – blues, rock, folk, old country, new country, jazz, R&B, oldies. It’s all there, depending on who you’re listening to. If I can do what I love to do naturally and have it be accepted, that’s as good as it gets for me. ●– – “American Idol” finalist Casey James is hoping to find a home in the catch-all genre.

Country radio was flourishing, and it turned out that the listenership seemed to be a lot of the folks that had been listening to Triple-A. I’d listen and say, ‘Well, I like this. Why do I like this? Oh, I like it because they’re good songs, they’re recorded the way that I like, and they’re talking about things in my life. Oh, my goodness, we’re writing country songs. And how did I not know that?’ ●– – Kristian Bush on making the leap from Adult Album Alternative (Triple-A) to country.

I would say the biggest complex from the show that I got was people always making fun of the way I talked. I mean just picking me apart about the way I talked. Anytime I’d go out or go somewhere in L.A., people would go, ‘Where are you from?’ and they would mock me. And people still do. ●– – Kellie Pickler gets so much guff for her southern accent that she actually tried to downplay it on her last album, resulting in vocal performances that she says don’t represent her very well.

I like southern drawls, too. But I have to admit, comic Kathleen Madigan did a great bit where she talks about doing a USO tour with Lewis Black, Kid Rock, and Kellie Pickler. Her impressions of Kellie are a riot.

Talking about the womens’ tent in one of their stops:

Kellie: Kathleen, I’m freezin. You think the guys would mind if we went and slept with them?

Kathleen: I don’t think they’d mind if YOU went and slept with them. . .

This made my week: Alison Bonaguro AND Eric Church both in one edition of Quotable Country!

Bonanaguro is a bit more eclectic in her stupidity than Church, however. Bonaguro says dumb things on all kinds of country-related topics but Church generally keeps his stupid quotes to topics related to how creative he is and how much of a rebel and outlaw he is and how other artists are too safe.

I think Church should expand his repertoire of topics a bit. He is sounding like a broken record, though he does always find a creative new way to express the same idea.

So Elizabeth Cook has both “balls” and now a “dongle” too! The next thing you know she’ll be hanging out with Chaz Bono! Crikey mate!

I really like and respect Blake Shelton for being willing to offend and polarize people. Now, if he’d just start using the words “libtard” and “demoncrap” regularly in his Twitter posts, he’d really be onto something BIG!

Alison Bonaguro has truly earned her well deserved title of “The Queen of AirHead Country”! Congratulations Alison on a job well done!

I don’t mind gooey southern accents from pretty young females. Everyone else not so much…

Awhile back I went to see Caitlin Rose at LA’s “ECHO Club” as she was the opening act for some Casey James guy I had never heard of. The place was packed with mostly young females and the show sold out. I couldn’t figure out why Casey James could draw such a crowd but now I do! (lol) I left after Caitlin’s set so I never even heard what Casey’s music sounds like. And you know what, I still don’t care…